Newsletter

“The Federal Government is a Threat”

A majority of Americans also say the federal government is a threat to their rights.

For the past seven years, a period covering the final two years of the Bush administration and President Obama’s first term, no more than about three-in-ten Americans have said they trust the federal government to do the right thing always or most of the time.

This change in trust decreased to its current level about the time the Democrats took over Congress in 2007.Trust dropped to its lowest level in 2012.

Our Jan. 2013 survey found only 26% saying they can trust government always or most of the time, while 73% say they can trust the government only some of the time or never. Majorities across all partisan and demographic groups express little or no trust in government. However, there are disparities: more than twice as many Hispanics as whites 44% vs. 20%) trust the federal government, and more blacks (38%) than whites trust the government. People younger than 30 have more trust in government than do older people. And far more Democrats (38%) than independents (21%) or Republicans (15%) say they can trust the government at least most of the time.

In the January 2013 survey, 76% of conservative Republicans regard the government as a threat to their personal rights and freedoms and 54% consider the government to be a “major” threat, an increase over three years ago when 62% of them described it as a threat to their freedom and 47% said it was a “major” threat. By comparison, there is little change in opinion among Democrats; 38% say the government poses a threat to their personal freedoms and 16% view it as “major.”

Since Barack Obama’s first year in office, public assessments of the federal government dropped nine points, according to our April 2012 survey. Most of the change was among Democrats and independents, as the level of favorable views of government among Republicans was already low.

Ten years ago, roughly two-thirds of Americans offered favorable assessments of all three levels of government: federal, state and local. But in a survey conducted in April 2012, those having a favorable view of the federal government numbered just 33% compared to 61% who regarded their local government favorably, and 52% who had a positive opinion of their state government.

In the 2012 Values survey, 69% of Americans said the federal government should only run things that cannot be done at the local level.

Currently, Americans say by a 56 to 35% margin that they prefer a smaller government providing fewer services than a bigger one, according to our Sept. 2012 survey. These opinions have changed little over the course of Barack Obama’s presidency, although the margin did narrow in 2008. There was a substantial partisan divide on this question: 87% of Republicans favored the smaller government option compared to 28% of Democrats. Conversely, Democrats preferred bigger government over a smaller one by a 60% to 11% margin over Republicans. Independents favored a smaller government over a bigger one by 65% to 27%.

In nearly every political values survey since 1987, majorities have agreed that “government regulation of business usually does more harm than good.” Partisan differences on this measure were far greater in 2012 than they were in 2007, the final year of George Bush’s presidency. About three-quarters (76%) of Republicans said that government regulation of business did more harm than good, among the highest ever. Just 41% of Democrats agreed, one of their lowest percentages ever.

Fortunately we have the means of fixing our Federal government.The House budget proposal submitted by Paul Ryan would cut spending and balance the Federal Budget within 10 years.Ryan’s proposal would completely repeal ObamaCare.

The Federal Budget could actually be balanced much sooner.After shutting down ObamaCare, Congress needs to look at turning health care regulatory and financing decisions over to the states.In addition, education and welfare should both be returned to the communities and the individual states.These transfers would be a good start in the reduction of our excessively large and intrusive Federal government.Innovation and competition among the individual states would reduce costs and develop creative solutions to our most vexing social problems.